


Indelible - Chitauri Invasion

by cutsycat



Series: Dictionary.Com Word of the Day Drabbles [1241]
Category: NCIS, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff and Crack, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-05
Updated: 2019-05-05
Packaged: 2020-02-26 13:02:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18717613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutsycat/pseuds/cutsycat
Summary: As NCIS helps with the cleanup after the Chitauri Invasion, Tony realizes something. His father's, Loki's, eyes are blue. They should be green like his.





	Indelible - Chitauri Invasion

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Angst_BuriTTo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angst_BuriTTo/gifts).



> Another dictionary.com word of the day drabble. This time from 09/23/2002 for the word [indelible](http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/2002/09/23/indelible).
> 
> indelible  
> [in-del-uh-buh l]  
> adjective  
> making marks that cannot be erased, removed, or the like:indelible ink.
> 
> This was requested by TT40_Angst_Queen as part of my 2018 prompt challenge [here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/cutsycat_NCIS_Prompts_2018/profile). More instructions are below if you wish to sign up. This prompt had many options. I removed the ones that I wasn't filling with this story. 
> 
>  **Prompt:**  
>  4\. Tony is secretly the Son of Loki. after the chitari invasion, Tony noticed something wrong with his father eyes in the footage: his father's eyes were supposed to be green, not blue, just like his!  
>  **End Prompt**
> 
> Also, apologies for any OOCness of the characters. Also, I haven't watched Infinity War or any movies with Thanos in them, so apologies for anything I get wrong about him.

New York was still a wreck and crime was on the rise. It was like they’d been attacked by aliens or something. NCIS was working double time trying to help other government agencies get control of the alien weapons and ships and everything else that they didn’t want normal humans in possession of.

Who knew what a human would do with a chitauri laser gun, after all. At least, that’s what Tony thought they were. He’d seen them in action on TV. He’d somehow managed to miss most of the actual alien attack.

He wasn’t sure how that had happened, but he was quite happy to thank his lucky stars over it. He wasn’t as surprised as some people. With a father like Loki, he knew aliens existed. There was no doubt in his mind about that.

Tony had never been quite sure why Loki had left him with DiNozzo Sr., but he assumed it had something to do with Loki knowing that people would be prejudiced against him if they knew he was Loki’s son. Not that being Senior’s son was much of a picnic, but he’d always known why Senior resented him. 

It wasn’t until almost a week into the cleanup operation that Tony realized what had been bothering him about the chitauri attack. His father’s eyes were blue in every single video footage not green. They should have been green like his. 

He knew damn well he’d gotten Loki’s eyes. Senior had commented on it enough times. At first, he’d thought the TV stations had purposefully put some kind of filter on Loki.

Then he’d thought maybe his TV was going out, but no it was all TVs and all stations. No way there was that big of a conspiracy going on. It was impossible to have a conspiracy involving that many people without someone leaking it.

He didn’t know what it meant, but he was determined to find out. Everyone was quick to point the finger at Loki and how evil he was, but Tony wasn’t sure that was the case. Different color eyes aside, unlike Senior, Loki had always made sure he was taken care of. 

Not that Loki coddled him or anything, Loki expected him to take care of himself, but Loki made damn sure he knew he was loved. Tony knew it was time to bring in the big guns. He explained everything to Gibbs from his being the son of Loki, which no one at NCIS knew before he told Gibbs, to Loki’s eyes being naturally green. 

“Loki can change his appearance, can’t he?”

“Yes,” Tony drawled out, “but it doesn’t make sense for him to change his eye color and nothing else. Plus, I’ve never seen him go full scale war like this. He’s the god of mischief not the god of war. There’s something wrong with this picture.”

Gibbs looked thoughtful before nodding. “Ok. We’ll treat this like a case. Let’s find some more evidence.”

“How are we supposed to do that? We aren’t even allowed to keep the chitauri guns.”

“We don’t need them. We just need Loki.”

“And how are we going to get to him?”

“I’m pretty sure I have a friend who can help us out. First, we’ll see if Loki’s eyes are still blue. If they aren’t, we can question him. If they are, I’m not sure what that tells us.”

Tony nodded. “Who’s your friend?”

“Harmon Rabb. Though, really, we’re going for friend of a friend here.” Gibbs explained cryptically as he pulled out his cellphone.

Tony stared at Gibbs in confusion. He knew Rabb too, but he wasn’t sure how Rabb could help with this.

“Hey Rabb, you still hang out with Rhodes?”

Tony couldn’t hear what was said on the other side of the phone, but he heard Gibbs next question, “Can you put us in touch with him? We need to get in to see Loki. There’s something off about the whole battle.”

Tony still couldn’t hear the other side of the conversation, but Gibbs was making a bunch of noises of agreement before he finally hung up. “Meet me at Stark Tower at 10am tomorrow.” Gibbs ordered.

Tony blinked and stared after Gibbs as he vanished into the elevator. Tony assumed he was going down to the parking garage, but none of this made any sense. How was Gibbs going to get them inside Stark Tower?

For that matter was Loki even in Stark Tower? Shouldn’t he be in jail or something? Despite his questions, Tony did as he was told and showed up at the appointed time, but he had to admit this whole thing seemed crazy, even crazier than his life normally was due to being Loki’s son.

Getting chained up in the sewer with Atlas, that wasn’t a fluke. He’d specifically been targeted because he was Loki’s kid. He played it off as just the waitress being crazy, but that wasn’t the truth.

That wasn’t the only NCIS case where he’d been targeted either. The most memorable of them had been that letter that contained plague, but there had been many more instances. The Jeffrey White case had seemed like it couldn’t be targeted at him, but it had been. 

How could Gibbs know Tony Stark? Would they really just be let into Stark Tower? Was that really what his life was now?

Gibbs clapped him on the back. “Buck up. We’ve got this.”

Tony quickly hurried to catch up as Gibbs made his way into Stark Tower. They were directed to a private elevator and Tony looked around wide eyed. Tony Stark was a legend.

He couldn’t believe that he was going to meet him. Or at least, Tony assumed that was what was going to happen. He couldn’t imagine what other reason they had for being at Stark Tower if they weren’t going to involve Tony Stark in this case in some manner. 

It still blew Tony’s mind, but he’d always trusted Gibbs and he would continue to trust him. God help him. The elevator doors opened and he came face to face with a man covered head to toe in soot? Or was that motor oil? Tony couldn’t really tell.

“Stark.” Gibbs barked out.

“I checked you out and Rhodey says you’re a good guy. What do you want?” Tony Stark crossed his arms defensively.

Tony blinked in recognition as he recognized someone who had been passed over time and time again. Someone who had only ever been wanted for what he could do for others and never for himself. Tony knew what that felt like.

Despite Loki’s best efforts, Tony had felt that way most of his life until he met Gibbs. Tony smiled slightly as he imagined Abby hugging Stark and Stark’s reaction. He didn’t seem like the kind of guy that would know what to do with a hug from a complete stranger.

Gibbs nodded to Tony to take the lead on the explanation. It made sense, Tony was Loki’s son, after all, but he had no idea how to talk to Tony Stark. He wasn’t usually at a loss like this, but there was something about Stark, not in a romantic way; Tony was completely gone on Gibbs, but something about Stark made him fumble for words which he never usually did. 

“I, ah, I’m Tony DiNozzo. This is Jethro Gibbs. I’m the son of Loki.”

Stark’s eyes sharpened on Tony and Tony held up his hands in surrender. “He’s not really how he came across during the battle. I have no idea who that was in the battle, but it wasn’t my father.”

“How do you know this?”

“Loki likes to cause chaos and mischief, but he has never been a front line soldier for war. It doesn’t make sense. Not that he doesn’t know how to fight, but he’s never straightforward like this. If he were to start a war, it would be for fun and he would be behind the scenes egging the leaders on.”

Stark got a thoughtful look. “Go on.”

“The real red flag for me, though, were his eyes.”

“What about them?”

“In all the chitauri invasion footage they’re blue.”

“Aren’t they supposed to be?”

Tony shook his head. “No, I got my eyes from Loki. His eyes should be green like mine.”

“You make a good point. To Loki then. Come on.” Stark started marching away.

“Just like that?” Tony asked flabbergasted.

“I told you, I already had you checked out before you ever got here.”

Tony glanced at Gibbs who just shrugged and followed Stark. Tony shook his head, but if everyone was going to act crazy, he might as well follow along at least until he figured out what was really going on.

Stark led the way to his rooftop and a quinjet. “Normally, I’d just fly over in the Iron Man armor, but I figured you’d prefer the jet.”

Gibbs inclined his head in agreement. Tony climbed in and looked around. “This is awesome. Is this one of the jets the Avengers deployed from?”

“Yep.” Stark watched DiNozzo with a twinkle in his eye. 

Stark flew the jet with ease and landed it on a building that Tony thought had the word SHIELD on it. “Follow me.” Stark commanded as he stepped out of the quinjet. 

Tony and Gibbs followed Stark through a bunch of twist and turns. Frankly, Tony was already lost and he was usually decent with directions. “Where are we going?”

“To see Loki.”

Just then a man in a black suit appeared, “Stark! Stark you can’t go in there.”

Tony Stark ignored him. The man didn’t seem to appreciate that and moved to block their path. “Mr. Stark that room is for authorized personnel only. You can’t go in there.”

“Watch me.” Stark sneered, shoving the suit out of his way, though not hard enough to hurt the guy.

Tony only shook his head. There was definitely more going on here than he was aware of. Everyone said Tony Stark was a playboy, but so far Tony had seen no evidence of that behavior.

He also had no idea where they actually were. SHIELD? What was that? 

How did Gibbs know Stark? Why was Stark doing this for them? Tony had expected more opposition given the popular opinion the public seemed to have about Loki.

Yet, aside from a single suit trying to stop Stark no one seemed to care if they visited Loki. He didn’t understand it, at all. They finally reached the location where Loki was being held. 

It looked like a giant hamster ball. Tony didn’t realize he was speaking out loud, “Didn’t Loki escape from this prison once already?”

“That was my fault.” A big booming voice reverberated throughout the room. “It won’t happen again.”

Tony glanced over in the direction the voice came from and was surprised to see Thor there. It wasn’t a huge surprise for Thor to keep watch over Loki. They were brothers, after all, but still Tony hadn’t expected it.

Stark had moved up close to the hamster ball. He was practically touching the ball as he stared at Loki like he was an interesting science experiment. “I’d thought it was a trick of the light, but your eyes are really green, aren’t they?”

“Aye, my brother’s eyes are green.”

“So who was the freak that looked like your brother but had blue eyes that we fought, Thor?”

“I know not.”

Loki sighed. “It was me. I’m sorry, son.”

Tony looked at Loki in confusion. “Sorry? Why?”

“I wasn’t able to stand up to him. You’re in danger now.”

“Me? Why?”

“He’ll come after you, next.”

“What are you talking about? Who will come after me? Why will I be in danger?”

“Thanos.”

“What?” Gibbs barked. “Who is that? Why would he come after my agent?”

“Heh. Aliens have been coming after Tony the whole time you’ve known him.”

“I think I would have noticed that.”

Loki barked a laugh. “I taught my son well. He’s good at hiding.”

“He’s right, Gibbs.”

“Why does Thanos care?” 

“Because his invasion failed and Hulk freed me from his control.”

“So?”

“Thanos always saw me as his.”

“You’re not something to be owned.” Tony protested.

Loki smiled slightly and shrugged, “He doesn’t agree.”

Tony frowned, but before he could question Loki more another suit showed up. This one was clearly experienced and wouldn’t be as easy to get rid of.

“Agent, agent.” Stark greeted.

“Stark. Pray tell, what are you doing here?”

“Oh, we’re just having a family chat.” Stark grinned disarmingly.

”That whole sentence fills me with dread, but please do explain.”

Stark grinned, “Loki was just doing that. Do go on, Loki.”

“What little sanity Thanos had to begin with has been worn away by his closeness to the infinity gems. Now, all he desires is more power. He will come after you, my son, because you have my power without my flaws.”

Tony frowned. “I do?”

“Yes. Your abilities undercover are one proof of this.”

Tony frowned. He wasn’t sure what to think about that. 

“So let me get this straight… Because you are free of Thanos control, he will now target your son, Tony DiNozzo?” Agent Coulson interrupted.

Loki nodded. “That’s correct.”

“And what pray tell do you expect us to do about this?”

“You? Nothing. My son, I hope will accomplish what I could not.”

“You want him to wipe out the human race?”

Loki shook his head. “No. That was never my goal. I attacked Earth because I knew Earth would be able to push us back and free me, but would look to Thanos like an assured victory. Thanos doesn’t understand humans nor how powerful they really are. In truth, I would not if not for Thor.”

Agent Coulson steepled his fingers. Loki watched him for a minute before tossing out, seemingly off topic, “Very realistic death scene.”

“You know very well that was mostly you.”

“I know. You played your part well. Apologize to Hawkeye for me, would you? I don’t think it would come well from me.”

Coulson narrowed his eyes, “I’ll take it under advisement.”

Tony had been half listening, half freaking out as Agent Coulson and Loki talked, “Can we get back to the part where a being with enough power to take on Odin is going to start targeting me? I have enough trouble fending off the normal idiots that think I’m a quick way to Loki. What am I supposed to do about Thanos?”

“DiNozzo!” Gibbs barked, smacking him on the back of his head. “Take a deep breath. We’ll figure this out. You’re not alone, remember?”

Tony dragged in a slow deep breath, “Right. Got it, boss.”

“So plan?” Stark questioned in general.

The entire room looked at each other blankly. That did not fill Tony with joy in the slightest. If he was going to come under attack from a super genius, he wanted a well formed plan to fight him off.

The guy could hold his own against Odin. How was Tony going to stand a chance? This was sounding more and more like a disaster in the making.

On top of that, his father was still being watched like a prisoner. “Do you plan to let Loki go anytime soon?”

”Oh, this?” Loki gestured to the hamster ball he was in, “This is only for show.”

Tony’s brow furrowed. “Why?”

“Thanos.” Loki stated simply.

“What?”

Loki rolled up his shirt to show off the indelible mark Thanos had left on his skin. “Even though my mind is free, my body is still a tool for Thanos. It is safer for everyone if Thanos believes me to be locked up.”

“Let’s cut to the chase people. How do we prepare for Thanos? I’m not just letting my agent die to some supergenius who lost his sanity.”

Tony glanced at Gibbs. That was more passionate than Tony had heard in a while. He remembered Gibbs being protective like that when he first joined Gibbs’ team, but it had stopped somewhere around the time McGee or Ziva had joined the team.

He’d thought Gibbs had stopped caring, that he’d just become another on Gibbs’ team. Initially, he had thought Gibbs might have feelings for him, but he’d become convinced he was wrong. Now, he wasn’t so sure.

Now wasn’t the time to explore those kind of revelations, however. First, they needed to figure out what they were doing about Thanos. Afterwards, hopefully there would be time to find out whether Gibbs did have feelings for him or not.

Stark started tossing out ideas, he even called in Captain America and Bruce Banner to help strategize. However, surprisingly or perhaps not so much, it was Loki that came up with the best battle plan. His father did have the most experience fighting Thanos, so it shouldn’t have been a surprise, but Tony could see it still was to the vast majority of the room.

With a plan in place, Gibbs and Tony returned to DC and their respective homes. Tony really wanted to go over to Gibbs and try to hash out Gibbs’ feelings for him. He’d been in love with Gibbs for years and now that he might have a chance he wanted to know if he did or not.

It was driving him crazy not knowing whether Gibbs was interested in him or not. Unfortunately, he couldn’t go over there, right now. The plan relied on everyone knowing exactly where Tony was at all times.

It sucked, but he understood it as well. He was the target, after all. At least, they weren’t a visible presence like when NCIS assigned protection detail, but that didn’t mean it chafed any less.

He tried to lose himself in a movie, but he was too keyed up at the thought of Thanos coming after him personally. Normally, stormy weather was the best time to stay inside and watch a movie, but one of Thanos’ abilities involved manipulating matter and energy and Tony couldn’t help wondering if the storm was one of Thanos’ creations.

He knew storms were generally more Thor’s territory, but that didn’t mean that Thanos couldn’t conjure up one if he tried. It was almost anticlimactic when Thanos finally showed up. The plan went off without a hitch.

In fact, it was too easy. They should have expected Thanos to be prepared for the plan. Unfortunately, that left Tony staring down Thanos practically alone. 

Loki had been vanished to who knows where. Somehow Thanos had managed to knock Captain America out with his own shield. Tony was sure Captain America would come back around soon, but he wasn’t sure they had enough time to wait for that.

Tony wasn’t entirely sure what had happened to Stark. He thought it had been an electrical surge that knocked Iron Man out of the air, but he wasn’t sure. All he knew is that Iron Man was no longer flying and appeared to be unresponsive.

In fact, the only two people besides Thanos still able to fight were Gibbs and Tony. Tony had a bad feeling about this. In theory, Loki had been teaching him how to wield his powers, but he really didn’t have the hang of it, yet.

Thanos made a mistake, however. He targeted Gibbs. That mistake would be his downfall.

Tony may not have been able to wield the power in practice, but you can bet that it came to his call as he screamed Gibbs’ name and put his entire being into saving Gibbs. Tony’s power collided with Thanos’ energy and a huge explosion filled the air.

Tony coughed. He couldn’t see anything. He had no idea what had happened. 

Was Gibbs ok? What happened to Thanos? Was the battle over or just starting?

As the smoke cleared, Tony saw Gibbs standing up and rushed over to him. “Are you alright?”

Gibbs nodded. “Where’s Thanos?”

Tony looked around. “I have no idea.”

“Is he gone for good?”

“Unlikely.”

“Loki! You’re back.” Tony shouted in surprise.

“Yes. You pulled a lot of my power to do that and somehow you managed to pull me from wherever Thanos had stashed me.”

“Cool. Do you know where Thanos is?”

Loki shook his head. “No. I’m sure he will need time to recharge, but I doubt he is gone for good. I am unsure if he will return in your lifetime, however.” Loki inclined his head slightly in respect before leaving.

Slowly the rest of the Avengers woke and said their goodbyes, heading back to wherever they normally hung out, probably Stark Tower. Tony and Gibbs looked at each other. Then by mutual decision they grabbed hold of each other’s hands and made their way back to Gibbs’ house.

“Did you really just temporarily defeat Thanos because he targeted me?”

Tony rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “I guess.”

Gibbs chuckled. “Well I guess there’s no doubt of your feelings for me.”

“Guess not. What about your feelings?”

“I love you too, Tony.”

Tony smiled beautifically as they made their way home. He looked forward to spending the rest of their lives together.

**Author's Note:**

> The dictionary.com series has 16 stories already written for it after this one, so I will be posting at least 16 stories before I stop posting again. I'm hoping to get more stories written before then, so that I don't stop posting for a while. Wish me luck! 
> 
> It's 2019 now and I have closed my 2018 Prompt collection, but fear not my 2019 Prompt Collection is now open [here](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/cutsycat_NCIS_Prompts_2019/profile). Just click the sign up link. ;) It will remain open until the beginning of 2020. I'm hoping to complete all the 2019 prompts by the end of 2020. Do not fear I have not forgotten about the 2018 prompts and will continue working through them. It's just easier for me to not get overwhelmed if I keep the prompts separated by the year they were given to me.
> 
> If you are not an ao3 member, you can prompt me [here](http://cutsycat.livejournal.com/50701.html). Please follow the same rules as are listed in the above link. However, because this is a handmade prompt form(that thinks it's a poll), it is considerably more limited than what ao3 provides, so please use the ao3 form if you're an ao3 member. Please note the name option is for a name that I can say this is for so that you know it's for you. Since this is for non ao3 members it won't be true gifts, but you will be mentioned in the notes. Please note if you have already voted in the poll and would like to request more stories you can just add a comment to the poll. Please include the name along with the prompt, so that I can appropriately gift the prompt to you.
> 
> For any authors that want to chat and/or are looking for a place where they can toss plot ideas around and get input from people, you can come join my discord server that is specifically geared towards writing/encouraging people to write and authors. The invite link is [here](https://discord.gg/HFvwpCq). If you're not an author, but want to chat with me about writing/stories or anything else you are welcome to join. I reserve the right to boot you from my server if all you do is pester me about updates, however. *grin* Really anyone who wants to talk about writing and/or plot ideas for various stories is welcome to join. 
> 
> I do not currently have a discord dedicated to my stories. If anyone would be interested in joining a group chat server that is focused on my stories please comment below. Also, if you would like such a thing what kind of things would you like to know about? Please share those with me.
> 
> Also, Drakonyashka has translated a couple of my works into Russian. [Tutelage](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378780) and [Imbue](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12378840). Go support them. 


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